


Not Even Half

by doctrpepper



Category: Justice League - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Abstract, And yet, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, also i decided to do away with the existing timeline, i had a lot of fun with this but also it doesnt make sense, just threw in my favorite bits of everything honestly, speed force as a sentient being, tagged character death because of the speed force but like. its not permanent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 07:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctrpepper/pseuds/doctrpepper
Summary: The Speed Force is the mysterious force that grants speedsters their speed but very few of them really know much about it. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.





	Not Even Half

**Author's Note:**

> if at all possible please listen to [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II1TLYrcwP8) while reading because its one the title and two i listened to it on repeat while writing so i guess do it for the aesthetic? also it slaps so at the very least its a song recommendation for you lovely people

Wally West is the only one who _knows_. Uncle Barry doesn't, it took one look at him and laughed and let him have what he wanted and then it took him away forever, stole him, kept him in its clutches without him even knowing what it was. Max has some idea. He touched it, once, and that's the only thing he won't ever talk about it because for one microsecond he _saw_ and he _knew_ and it shook him to his core but he never _felt_ it and Wally envies him his innocence.

Wally, well. Wally _knows_. It took him and it smiled and it let him have what he asked, like a fool, but, unlike Uncle Barry, it let him _know_. Max says he's a conduit for the energy. He says one day Wally will be faster than his uncle because whatever it is that gives speedsters their speed, that _thing_ he'd seen for that one microsecond, had for whatever reason decided to latch onto Wally and hold him tight and draw itself over his body.

Wally laughs, because Max doesn't _know_. He doesn't want to be a conduit, he'd rather he never be as fast as Uncle Barry at all. Because the faster he runs, the closer to it he gets. Uncle Barry says there's a cap on his speed and that one day he'll break through and Wally loves his uncle but he doesn't understand that there's a cap on his speed because Wally _put_ it there, and it laughs and laughs and it tells him it'll get him, one day, one day he'll come running right into its arms.

Uncle Barry does. He runs and he runs and he's not fast enough so he runs some more and it takes him because it's had _enough_ of this game and Wally stands and watches with his team and they stand around him with shock on their faces but him, he's not surprised. It took him and it's _angry_ because he's not the one it _wants_ and he knows it knows he knows it took Barry because of him.

Robin puts a hand on his shoulder and the team gathers around and they say something but he can't hear them because his mind is moving faster and it grins and it holds out its hands because _you're next_ and Robin squeezes and Wally turns away from it and looks into blue, blue eyes and smiles because he made it back this time but he won't be so lucky again.

He knows the team is concerned. Everyone is concerned, actually. The league is desperately looking for a way to find out what happened to Barry but no one ever asks him and he's glad they won't because they still believe they can find him and if they did ask then he would have to tell them they _won't,_ that it took him and it's holding him and it's smiling and waiting and tying him up like a present to get its _real_ prize.

That's its nature, he supposes. To give to give to give until you're drunk on its offerings and you run and you run and you run until you can't run anymore and then it takes and it takes and it takes and it holds and it grips and it breaks and you're lost you're lost you're lost.

The team, through Black Canary, let Wally know they think it's weird he doesn't seem messed up about Uncle Barry dying. They don't seem to realize he's already messed up.

Robin finds him at night and holds onto him and watches him with blue with bright with soft and Wally thinks, for one foolish second, that he can be safe here and then it ends and he has to run again and he feels it watching him and it's smug because he knows it knows he knows he'll come to it one day and he can take all the time he likes because it is made if time and it made time and it broke time and time does not exist.

Wally looks back and he can't see the blue but Robin sends him a smile and he smiles back and he feels it smile too and so he runs and he runs and he runs and Artemis jokes that this is the fastest he's ever been and he feels cold he feels scared he feels it laugh because he knows it knows he knows it's coming for him.

Uncle Barry tried to teach him how to vibrate through objects once. He couldn't he can't he won't because he feels it grab onto him and pull and it says he's almost there and he _stops_ he stands still because he's scared if he moves it'll take him.

It makes him bleed, just because it can, and laughs as Uncle Barry says things like he'll get it one day and maybe he's just not ready.

When Robin's trapped, bleeding, dying, Wally doesn't even _think_ , he's through the wall and holding him and looking hard at the  _blue_ and it's just as bright as always and safe and happy. Aqualad congratulates him on vibrating through a wall and something about how Uncle Barry would be proud of him. And Robin smiles because he finally got it and it laughs because he finally got it and Wally starts to cry because he finally got it.

Robin comes home with him often. They're friends and then they're more and it grins and smiles and turns its attention and Wally looks in horror at blue blue blue as Robin screams in its clutches and Wally says _please_ and it says _no_ and Wally says _take me instead_ and it says _okay_.

Batman says Wally is dying. That every time he uses his speed he dies a little faster and there's nothing he can do. Everyone is sorry but Wally is not surprised because this is what it gave him when he begged screamed pleaded. Robin doesn't even remember because it held him so tightly it was able to do that and Wally never never never wants Robin to ever ever ever go through that again so he is dying.

Robin stays with him at his side and Wally wishes he wouldn't and wishes he'll never leave and he supposes if he will die at least he'll have someone he loves with him because it already took Uncle Barry from him.

The team is in trouble and it laughs as he runs because he can't not run because at the very beginning he looked it in the eyes and asked to run and so now he is dying and he runs because when he looked it in the eyes and asked to run it smiled and said _yes_. He gets hit with the beam and Batman says it stabilized his molecules but he knows it knows he knows it looked at him and laughed and let him run.

Wally wears his uncle's costume and he runs like his uncle used to run and everyone tells him he's as fast as the Flash and it smiles and he knows it knows he knows he can go faster and he knows it knows he knows if he does it will take him once and for all.

Zoom comes and goes and goes and comes and he knows it knows he knows Zoom _knows_ but Zoom only wants to kill kill kill and he knows it knows he knows he looked at it in the eyes and asked to run and _kill_ and it laughed and said _you can try_ and Zoom certainly tries but Wally won't let him and it laughs because it chose its champion long long long ago and Zoom is too late too slow too bad.

Robin says once, late at night in bed as they hold each other, that Wally scares him sometimes. That there's something Wally knows and won't tell anyone and it's big and it's dangerous and it's scary. And Wally says nothing because he's absolutely right and it's so big and it's so dangerous and it's so scary that he won't even say anything about it and he remembers Robin in its hands and holds him tighter.

Bart is here. Bart came from the future to the past to right a wrong and he asks for Uncle Barry but Uncle Barry isn't here and Bart is confused because he died long after this but what Bart doesn't know is it is made of time and it made time and it broke time and time does not exist.

Bart never met it, so Wally doesn't blame him and even envies him. Somehow, where Bart came from, Barry looked at it in the eyes and asked to run and it laughed and said yes and Barry and Iris had children who never had to look in its eyes and ask to run because it smiled and said go run with your father and then Bart came after that and its smile grew sharp and it said run and run and run until you get to my champion because i will send him my chosen and my chosen and my chosen until he comes to me.

Bart stays anyway, because he came here with a job to do and he doesn't know about it so he doesn't fear it and at night Wally lies awake with Robin in his arms and Bart on the couch and he knows it knows he knows it's watching them because he is watching them but he's watching them because it is watching them.

Robin is breaking. Wally almost doesn't notice because he's watching for it and it alone but Robin lives in a whole different world with whole different problems and he's breaking because of what is happening there. And then one night he's broken and he's gone and Wally doesn't even notice because it's taunting him once again and it laughs because he knows it knows he knows he's its champion and he doesn't want to be but he is and he fills the role well.

Bart joins the team because he needs something to do and he needs to do his job and Wally is alone. He's never felt so alone since Uncle Barry was taken and he knows he's not alone because it's right at his side and it smiles and it says it will never leave him and Wally wishes he were alone.

Bart does what he came to do and Robin does what he left to do and before Wally knows it they're back in his arms and he says what he can and does what he can to keep them to beg them to stay because he needs them he can't be alone he can't be left with only it.

Wally throws himself into his work with the league and he does well and they work smoothly and he doesn't feel so alone anymore. It laughs because he knows it knows he knows he's never alone but at least it's not just him and it.

Then Lex Luthor teams up with Brainiac and he's a threat to everything good in this world and so Wally does what he must and he runs and he runs and he runs and he says to Robin I love you and he takes one last look at the blue and he says to Bart be good and he says to Uncle Barry I'll see you soon and he runs and he runs and he runs and it smiles because it knows he knows it knows its taking what it's been after this whole time. It smiles and he looks in its eyes and says _im here_ and it says _about time._

 

Hawkwoman reaches desperately into the breach, hoping beyond hope to grab the Flash, but comes up empty. Batman is reminded of when the last Flash disappeared without a trace in a similar way and feels the cold feeling of failure burn in his heart.

Hawkwoman shouts triumphant as her mad grasp hits something solid and she pulls with all her might. Green Lantern and the rest of the league rush over to help and soon they're dragging out a familiar red costume. Too familiar. Batman hurries over just in time to see Barry Allen jolt awake.

“Wally?” he gasps.

“Gone,” Shayera responds, staring at her hands in dismay.

Barry sets his mouth into a grim line. “It took him, just like it threatened.”

“What did?” Bruce asks, but Barry is already collapsing again, energy drained.

He never does give Bruce an answer.

**Author's Note:**

> my first posted fic and its not my usual style. anyway find me on [tumblr](https://doctrpepper.tumblr.com/) and maybe check out my [writing blog](https://pishuu.tumblr.com/) which i will have up and running one day with updates about future fics and whatnot


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